Wouters, Jan; De Man, Philip --- "International Organizations as Law-makers" [2011] ELECD 524; in Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations

Editor(s): Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201355

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: International Organizations as Law-makers

Author(s): Wouters, Jan; De Man, Philip

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

8 International organizations as law-makers
Jan Wouters and Philip De Man



INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the law-making processes of interna-
tional organizations and the impact thereof, particularly in the light of the
functionalism-constitutionalism dichotomy and agency theory. The former
distinction has been dealt with rather extensively earlier in this volume by Jan
Klabbers and essentially juxtaposes the claim of international organizations to
such rights, privileges and authority as are necessary to fulfil their functions,
and the call for more control over these organizations. The constitutionalist
approach is more recent and has been developed mainly in reaction to appar-
ent flaws in the functionalist model. There are two strands of constitutional-
ism (de Wet, 2006): one emphasizes the existence of a number of universal
core values such as human rights that permeate every level of the world legal
order, the other rather focuses on the possibility of controlling international
organizations through various provisions in their constituent charters.
Agency theory, on the other hand, is a socio-political and microeconomic
theory (Ross, 1973: 134­139) that can and has been applied equally well to
political science and international relations.1 It will be discussed briefly in a
separate section below. Afterwards, we will elaborate on the basic premises
underlying the attribution of law-making powers to international organiza-
tions. We will then proceed to discuss how agency theory compares to the
classic doctrines of functionalism and constitutionalism in explaining the law-
making methods of ...